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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

This was the first PRS product I’ve ever purchased. I’ve heard great things about their SE line as of late and have had good experiences in the limited amount of times I’ve had the opportunity to play PRS guitars. I was in search of a good quality guitar that was versatile and would make a good work horse. I record and play live and have projects that require various tones. The quality of the guitar is very good. The Finish is nearly flawless. The Fretwork is fantastic — no sharp edges, very comfortable and easy to play. The Neck feels good and is what I would describe as “medium” and a “C Shape”. The profile is not as rounded as a 50’s Gibson baseball bat neck, nor is it as slim as their 60’s style or a typical Fender neck. It’s not as slim or wide as a shredder neck you’d find on an Ibanez or ESP either. It’s very much up the middle and should be suitable for most players. The toggle switches and pots all feel good as well. The nut is cut nicely and the set up out of the box was good. The bridge is comfortable. The saddles have a smooth brushed finish that makes plan muting easy on your picking hand.I cannot comment on the tremolo system, as I am not a trem user. I actually added two more springs to the trem cavity and locked the bridge down. I do this with my strats also. It’s just easier for me, personally and I have had zero tuning issues since. The tuning pegs themselves work fine but are just standard tuners. PRS does make PRS se locking tuners. Since they are made in-house, I feel that they should be included on a guitar that costs almost $1000. Other brands like ESP and Ernie Ball have been including their own locking tuners on LTD and Sterling guitars respectively, many of which are sub-$1000 models. It’s not make or break, however, locking tuners make string changes so much quicker and easier and it would’ve been a great addition. I do plan on swapping the stock tuners out soon. The electronics are clearly a big draw to this model as the “-08” refers to the 8 different pickup combinations (including splitting the coils). The mini toggle switches are great. They allow you to split the individual pickups, rather than tapping both at the same time with a push/pull knob. When split, the pickups don’t sound like tradition single coils like you’d have on a strat, but they do sound nice and clean up well. I find this useful for a cleaner neck pickup sound or various middle position combinations. The bridge in split mode sounds nice with some overdrive. The guitar employs a master volume and master tone knob, both which work well and as you’d expect. The input jack is sturdy and seems to be high quality as well.The pickups are okay. They’re not bad. They’re very useable. However, for some of the higher gain tones I like to use, the bridge pickup lacks the tight bottom end and cut that i prefer. The clean sounds and overdriven sounds are good enough. I plan on swapping the pickups out (while keeping the coil splits and wiring the same). I just prefer a little more cut from the bridge. I’m not looking for anything crazy, just a good rock pickup like a Duncan JB or Custom. I find when using Mesa style tones for hard rock / pop punk, 90’s style stuff (foo fighters for example) the bridge pickup is a bit too muddy in the low end and needs more mid range and highs. This is just my opinion based on tones I use, of course. Cosmetically, the guitar is beautiful. I opted for the Ezra Verde finish. I find that the flame maple veneer looks nice, but stands out (in a good way) on this model because of the natural back. I really love how you can see the maple cap and mahogany back. I think the busier top benefits from the minimal aesthetics elsewhere. The zebra pickups look good. I think I would’ve preferred Nickel covered or plain black pickups, just as not to draw attention away from the top. That is not a big deal though, just an aesthetic opinion. I did change the amber speed knobs. I thought the clear and black PRS lampshade knobs looked much better, so that is what I changed them too. (Yes, the PRS knobs DO fit on the SE volume pots on this model). The only imperfection I found was a small spot on the fretboard around the 15th fret. There is a very small spot that looks like a finish imperfection, but it could just be the rosewood. It’s lighter than the rest of the board. It’s not very noticeable and does not effect play. I’m not worried about it at all. This guitar comes with a nice gig bag. It’s not as padded as the soft Gibson bags but it’s still decent. I bought a hard shell case for the guitar but the bag being included is appreciated. Overall, I think the craftsmanship offered with this instrument is the biggest selling point. The various pickup combinations is a nice touch and can be useful. However, quality of the wood and fretwork, the set up out of the box and intonation is very, very good. For the price point, I think it competes well with other brands. The two biggest negatives I find are the tuners and the pickups but they’re not actually bad or enough of a negative for me to say the instrument isn’t worth it. In fact, I would not mind picking up another one for a backup.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I don't care what anyone says, this guitar comes with low action, sounds fantastic, and plays well. I stretched the strings and tuned it up in record time. This guitar takes away all barriers for a new player. Someone can learn and become great with this instrument. I plan to do great things with this purchase. Not to mention it is absolutely beautiful. Two things I plan to do is upgrade the volume and tone knobs and I purchased locking tuners. I plan to put D'addario strings on it as well. I would highly recommend buying this, especially while it's on sale.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I just started the return on the Blood Orange 24-08 SE I received yesterday. Grudgingly. Out of the box, the first thing I noticed was a couple of small finish blemishes on the face that looked like glue might have soaked through the veneer blocking the stain. They are tiny, but once seen they are like search lights. Where the neck meets the body showed incredibly rough sanding, possibly more glue staining and the color of the grain fill was so off it shows up in the end grain as noticeably light colored dots. There are a couple of what looks like black felt tipped pen marks along the top of the body, like maybe they were used to align the veneer or routing but didn't get completely sanded away. All the blems are trapped under the very thick and polished finish and cannot be from handling.And, there were at least three high sharp frets way up on the neck that still contain fibers from the last rag to wipe it down. The tuners are some of the worst I've ever seen on a guitar, much less an $800 guitar, and that or the the intonation makes this guitar un-tuneable. I failed to look at the PRS forum before making this purchase and I won't make that mistake again. QC issues with the finish are rampant and not just with the SE models. Overall this was a terrible New Guitar Day experience and it will be a long time before I consider another PRS in any price range. Thanks to zZounds for making the process, buying and returning, so easy.

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